This website is developed from the site originally conceived developed & maintained by Marcus Castell and associates. Opinions are those of the various authors of the articles, and are not those of the NZ National Maritime Museum unless specifically noted. Information in this site has been updated to 2002 and will be progressively updated as resources allow. More information on historic ships (etc) is contained in the MARITIME INDEX website

The Twin Screw Steamer Rangatira 1908-16

Shaw Savill's second Rangatira and her sister ship the Pakeha were designed by Captain Richard J. Noal, C.B.E. (Shaw Savill's Marine Superintendent) specifically to carry emigrants to the Antipodes via the Cape of Good Hope and return to Britain with frozen meat products. His style can be seen in later Shaw Savill & Albion vessels right up to 1960; a remarkable tribute to the success of his designs.

1909 February 7 Commenced maiden voyage under the command of Captain R. D. Lowden on the Liverpool to Wellington service via Capetown, Fremantle and Sydney.

1911 January 20 Left England for Sydney.

Deck crew, 1912

1912 January 11 Departed from the Victoria Dock at Tilbury (London) with 1,154 passengers for Australia.

1912 February 23 Arrived at Sydney, where Ordinary Seaman Walter Phillips obtained his Certificate of Discharge, he received a good offer from Captain Lowden to continue on to Canada, but he had promised his intended that he would leave the ship at Sydney, set up home and bring her out.

1912 March 15 Departed from Lyttelton for Napier.

1913 March 20 Arrived at Sydney from London.

1914 January Replaced the Athenic on the Company's main line service with outward calls at Teneriffe, Capetown and Hobart and homeward calls at Ri de Janeiro, Teneriffe and Plymouth.

1914 September Converted to an auxiliary troop transport by the Naval Dockyard at Sydney and designated A22.

1914 September 29 The 3rd Field Artillery Brigade and the 1st Division of the 3rd Field Ambulance Corps departed Brisbane aboard the Rangatira for Egypt.

1915 April 25 Landed Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli.

1916 February 15 Commonwealth control ended and the Navy handed her back to the Shaw Savill Line.

1916 Departed London for Hobart and New Zealand ports.

1916 March 31 While en-route to Tasmania and New Zealand, the six year old liner was stranded in dense fog in what is now known as Rangatira Bay on the North West corner of Robben Island at Table Bay, Capetown. She was abandoned as a Constructive Total Loss, but much of her 7,500 ton cargo was salvaged in the five months that it took for the ship to break up.

Notorious Robben Island has claimed 26 vessels and Rangatira grounded in a large kelp bed in 30 feet of water, at the same spot as the Tantallon Castle on the 7th of May 1901. The island had long been a prison (Nelson Mandela was later incarcerated there) and a great drunken orgy developed when convicts were sent to help with the salvage operations.

The Royal mails were recovered as the Public Records Office at Kew (London) list in their records information on payments made for mails salvaged from the vessel.

She was carrying a heavy lift crane for the port of Lyttelton's Gladstone Pier in her holds and it is also reputed that she could have been carrying twenty "Maori" motorcycles built for Johns Bannister and Company of London and intended for the New Zealand market.